Zuffa has been sued in a patent infringement lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas by a company that claims that Zuffa is infringing on a patent owned by Orostream LLC. However, it appears that the lawsuit is one of many filed by the company on the same day.
According to the Complaint, Orostream is a Texas limited liability company with its principal place of business in Plano, Texas. Orostream’s lawyers are based out of Chicago, Illinois. It appears that Zuffa was one of several companies sued by Orostream on the same day: February 23, 2015. At this point, it appears that Zuffa has requested and the Court has granted an extension of time to Answer the Complaint.
The Complaint alleges that Zuffa infringed on a patent known as the ‘837 Patent titled, “Computer Network System and Method for Efficient Information Transfer.” The patent was filed on April 15, 1996 according to the Complaint.
The Complaint states that Zuffa has directly infringed the patent “by making and/or using a content distribution system over the internet, including the system and application for the UFC.TV app, which performs a method of transferring target information packets while minimizing additional communication delay between a user node and a master node comprising the steps of monitoring length of time necessary for transfer of each target information packet, and adjusting the rate of target information transfer in response to the monitored transfer time.”
No dollar amount is associated with the lawsuit although Orostream requests that Zuffa pay “all damages to and costs incurred…because of Defendant’s infringing activities…”
The full text of the patent can be found here via the USPTO web site.
H/t to Paul Gift for initially finding this lawsuit.
Payout Perspective:
Although not a patent attorney, reading the patent it appears that what Orostream has is a patent for which a web site disseminates information from an end user customer to the source. It appears to be broad and maybe that’s why on the same day it sued Zuffa, Orostream sued many others, in the same Court. Some of the other entities it has sued are WWE, NFL Enterprises, LLC, NHL Interactive Cyberenterprises and MLB Advanced Media. Notably, Texas courts are “patent-friendly” and the Eastern District is known for going to trial quickly on these cases. Here, Orostream has filed a jury demand along with its Complaint.
Only an opinion, but it appears that the strategy by Orostream is to seek a settlement from Zuffa to pay a settlement and not litigate the case. In patent law parlance, this is known as a “patent troll.” MMA Payout will keep you posted.
http://auburnpub.com/blogs/eye_on_ny/new-york-state-association-of-counties-backs-bill-to-legalize/article_a3cd32fc-ce46-11e4-b77c-4b5b190dc2e9.html
These fucking patent trolls make a living off of frivolous lawsuits against companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft… Zuffa is just their latest victim.
@ JF – So I guess you feel the same way about Zuffa going after agoraphobics locked in their basement pirating UFC Events and sharing them with the world?
Zuffa does the same damn thing to poor people who copyright infringe on their content so don’t be so quick to judge these “frivolous” lawsuits
Patent law is a foreign subject to me. I wouldn’t know where to begin. It is interesting to read about things like this though and I hope they Zuffa has a good attorney.